Sync Closing Labels

GitHub action to copy labels from any issues closed by a pull request into the pull request itself.

Quick Start

---
name: Sync Closing Labels
on:
  pull_request_target

jobs:
  sync:
    permissions:
      pull-requests: write
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Sync labels with closing issues
        uses: williambdean/closing-labels@v0.0.7

The action uses github.token by default — no additional secrets required. The workflow must grant pull-requests: write permission.

Inputs

Input	Required	Default	Description
gh_token	No	${{ github.token }}	GitHub token with pull-requests: write permission
exclude	No	""	Comma-separated list of labels to never add
respect_unlabeled	No	"true"	If "true", labels manually removed from the PR will not be re-added
owner	No	${{ github.repository_owner }}	Repository owner
repo	No	${{ github.event.repository.name }}	Repository name
pr_number	No	${{ github.event.number }}	Pull request number

Examples

Exclude specific labels

- uses: williambdean/closing-labels@v0.0.7
  with:
    exclude: "wontfix,duplicate"

Re-add labels even if manually removed

- uses: williambdean/closing-labels@v0.0.7
  with:
    respect_unlabeled: "false"

Use a custom token

- uses: williambdean/closing-labels@v0.0.7
  with:
    gh_token: ${{ secrets.MY_GITHUB_TOKEN }}

How It Works

1. Queries the GitHub GraphQL API to find all issues referenced as "closing" by the pull request
2. Collects all labels from those issues
3. Optionally subtracts any labels that were manually removed from the PR (respect_unlabeled)
4. Optionally filters out labels in the exclude list
5. Applies the remaining labels to the pull request via the GitHub REST API

Security

Please see our Security Policy for information on how to report security vulnerabilities.

Local Development

Build and enter the Docker container locally:

make build
make interactive

From inside the container, run the action with the required environment variables:

GH_TOKEN="$(gh auth token)" \
INPUT_OWNER="williambdean" \
INPUT_REPO="closing-labels" \
INPUT_PR_NUMBER="21" \
INPUT_EXCLUDE="wontfix,duplicate" \
INPUT_RESPECT_UNLABELED="true" \
INPUT_DRY_RUN="true" \
closing-labels

Set INPUT_DRY_RUN="true" to preview what labels would be applied without making any changes.